The present invention relates to the process of treating warm blooded animals including humans who are in an anoxemic state. Specifically it relates to the treatment of lactic acidosis in warm blooded animals and certain conditions of the body believed to be caused by lactic acidosis one of which is hemorrhagic shock.
Lactic acidosis is the clinical term used in medicine to indicate an excessive amount of lactic acid in the blood and other tissues of the organism causing an acidemia. This condition of the tissues manifests itself in patients in various kinds of shock such as hemorrhagic shock, bacteremic shock, postoperative shock of neurogenic origin, myocardial infarction associated with shock, cerebral edema and sequelae of cerebral anoxia.
In 1965 there was published by the applicant a report on the action of dihydroxyacetone in reducing cerebral edema (LABORIT et al Agressologie, Vol. 6, No. 6 pp. 743-758, 1965). In this report it was observed that dihydroxyacetone which is a known oxidizing agent for the NADH.sub.2 will protect a rat against cerebral lactate edema whether this edema is induced by mechanical means, biological means or pharmacological means.
By mechanical means of generating cerebral edema we refer to extra dural foreign bodies inserted into the brain tissue to cause generation of fluid. By biological means we refer to the generation of cerebral edema by means of a deliberate prefusion of a lactate salt such as sodium lactate which generates lactic acid edema. Finally, by pharmacological means of generating cerebral edema we refer to administration of adrenalin or nicotine to the animal to generate and create a condition of hyperlactacidemia in the test animal.
As a result of that early work, the attention of the applicant was directed to other uses of dihydroxyacetone especially as it effects the phagocytic activity of the organism and its relationship if any to the problems of hemorrhagic shock and the many problems associated with the failures of the vascular system under conditions of shock.
Although many treatments of physical or therapeutic nature have been proposed for some of these conditions of shock no satisfactory solution has heretofore been found. For instance of all patients suffering from a heart attack associated with shock, statistics show that 85% will die in spite of prompt attention by physicians.
There is therefore an urgent need for a method and pharmaceutical composition which can treat at least one of these forms of shock. It is an object of the present invention to provide a process for treating the shock induced in warm blooded animals suffering from lactic acidosis. It is also an object of the present invention to disclose and thus provide a pharmaceutical composition in injectable dosage unit form which when administered to animals including humans will reverse the shock symptoms caused by lactic acidosis. It is a specific object of the invention to reverse the depression in blood pressure caused by hemorrhagic shock induced by lactic acidosis and restore that pressure to normal ranges.